The intent of this study was to provide awareness of the trends surrounding piano practice pedagogy as determined by students either immersed in a university piano program or graduates thereof. The areas of study include a historical context of university music programs and the field of piano pedagogy, trends of imitative instruction, the importance of qualitative and quantitative practice, and the discovery of piano practice routines of collegiate pianists. This research project was approved for an IRB exemption by the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters.
Within this study, the subjects were either graduates of a collegiate piano department or students in a public four-year university music program, private four-year university music program, community college music program, or music conservatory music program (N = 160). The subjects completed a survey within Qualtrics that contained an informed consent statement. The survey was limited to subjects in the United States.
The subjects answered questions about their specific involvement in collegiate piano studies and discussed individual practice habits regarding levels of practice efficiency, daily time spent practicing, motivating factors for individual practice, extramusical factors that affect daily practice, specific practice strategies taught by their private teachers, and practice methods employed without instruction. The data were analyzed using the Qualtrics survey application. The results from the survey highlight the need from applied piano teachers to provide more specific instructions regarding practice techniques
